Are ActiveRain Points Fun? Absolutely! Are They Critical? Not Really

As with most successful real estate professionals, I am highly competitive, so I enjoyed the immediate reward of the points system as soon as I began writing here over 20 months ago.  I have to applaud the ActiveRain founders for developing the point system in the first place, since it definitely encourages LOTS of fresh content on this network daily.

That being said, there is so much more to this site than points alone.  I realize that this is not completely new ground, but I wanted to throw my two cents out there for public consumption.

I have seen a bunch of recent posts from fellow AR members expressing their disdain over losing points because of a recent tweak to the system.  I have also seen innumerable posts complaining about the loss of points from specific posts.  Some of these latter posts came from people who were posting the same content over and over again.

I hope that this doesn't come across as disingenuous, since I have written a good number of points milestone posts and I have certainly amassed a lot of them myself, but the points are simply not the most important part of ActiveRain. 

WHAT?!?!?

As Fonzie would say, correct-a-mundo.  (Side note: I'm sure that some of you thought the last sentence was both nostalgic and funny, while others of you are just scratching your head wondering what the heck I am talking about).

I will readily admit that the point system is responsible for making me a consistent blogger/writer, but I would happily trade ALL of my points for the following other benefits that I have derived from this community:

• 
  
• Actual Sales and Listings - what a concept!
  
  
• Lifelong Friendships - many of my very best friends are members here on AR
  
  
• Agents I Have Recruited to work for our company - enough said
  
  
• Real Estate Knowledge (much of which has resulted in more production)
  
• LOTS of Writing Experience- this has led to being published in statewide magazines
  
• Media Exposure - interviewed by local, national, and even international sources
  
  
• My own online radio show (http://blogtalkradio.com/jckc) - my co-host Ken Cook and I met right here on AR
  
• Teaching opportunities - webinars, live classes, etc.
  
• Support - the encouragement here is priceless
  
• Learning about other social media tools - I first heard about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr here!
  
  

Need I say more? 

This post I wrote back in January sums up what I consider to be my own ActiveRain successes: ActiveRain Success in 2008 - A Look Back

Please understand that I didn't write this post to minimize anyone's achievements, as I really do enjoy having lots of points! 

That being said, I would encourage you to consider the value of any posts that are only written to complain.